Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Blankfein: Seems Like 'Fiscal Cliff' Deal Could Be 'Reachable'

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein described President Barack Obama's plan for Washington to reach an agreement on the "fiscal cliff" as detailed and "very credible." However, he cautioned that marginal income tax rates may have to rise to seal a deal.

In an interview with CNBC after meetings between the president and several CEOs, Blankfein said, of course, it's hard to tell if a deal will be reached but "if I were involved in a negotiation like this, and everybody was purporting to be where they are, I would say that an agreement was reachable."

Blankfein said he thought concessions on both the revenue and entitlement sides would be necessary...

“I’m certainly not insisting, I don’t even desire higher rates," he said. "I think they will be a drag if revenue goes up and rates goes up. But I think they will be a drag on the American economy if our budget deficit widens out forever, if we’re irresponsible and if government doesn’t work."

When left with these "poor" choices, Blankfein said the compromise has to be in the middle and both sides have to give.

This Victim C intends to pass it on to Victim D who is probably rooting for Thief A thinking that A's theft against C will never impact him. Of course, if A actually tried to do to Victim D what D is ok with him doing to C, D would go into convulsions. Take my neighbors property but hands off mine! That's the American way.

There's nothing wrong with what Blankfein does per se. But he's a crony capitalist pure & simple, but if most people had access to the govt the way he does they'd take it. It's a problem of govt and Blamkfein is a creature of a completely corrupt system. Bankers will always be around, but let's abolish the FDIC for banks like his or even better period, so he has to raise risk capital on his own. Secondly the Fed so he doesn't have his bussom buddy Bernanke helping either. He would sink or float on his own merit which no one should begrudge him for. But as it stands today he's just another Jamie Dimon, or Jeffery Immelt, by govt for govt.

Anybody want to head out to a nice lobster dinner with me while we negotiate how much of Lloyd Blankfein's money we take? We'll start at 50% of all of his assets and argue over whether it should be something more like 75% or 95%. And don't worry if you can't afford a lobster dinner -- old Lloyd is picking up the tab for that, too.

Politico reports at 4:40AM Thursday, Listen to top Democrats and Republicans talk on camera, and it sounds like they could not be further apart on a year-end tax-and-spending deal – a down payment on a $4 trillion grand bargain.

But behind the scenes, top officials who have been involved in the talks for many months say the contours of a deal – including the size of tax hikes and spending cuts it will likely contain — are starting to take shape.